1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a distilling or evaporating system for reclaiming waste ethelene glycol. More particularly, the invention relates to a compact efficient automatic self contain system which is capable of being mounted on a mobil trailer for transportation and use at remote sites.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Distillation systems are well known in the industrial alcohol and petroleum industries. Such systems have reached a very high degree of thermal efficiency and automatic control. These systems are known to be continuous process systems employing numerous sensing controls, elaborate computation equipment and responsive flow control subsystems.
Multiple-effect evaporator systems employing vacuum pressure in the stages are well known in the milk and sugar industries. Such systems seldom exceed four vacuum stages and usually employ the heat of condensed steam in a heating coil in the next higher vacuum stage. The condensed steam leaving a heating coil of a stage is usually dumped in the drainage systems without regard to the degree of contamination carried over into the condensed steam.
It has been estimated that more than twenty-four million gallons of permanent type anti freeze having an ethelene glycol base are used each year in the United States alone. This water soluble oil is dumped by gasoline stations into the sewerage systems of every community in the United States. Large manufacturers using oil and harmful chemicals have been forced by government regulations to remove all types of contaminates from their water before dumping it into a sewage system or into open streams. Large manufacturers employ settling tanks, centrifugal separators and filters to remove contaminates when possible.
Waste chemicals which are in solution and are too weak for commercial use have been refined to remove the pure chemical or to concentrate the chemical solution to a usable strength. Heretofore, systems used to refine waste chemicals have been designed and built as fixed on site systems which are usually large and complex. Seldom are such systems economically justifiable except for very large users of the chemicals being reclaimed.
In the air transportation industry large aircraft are parked in the open between flights. Often the exposed aircraft become covered with cold rain, freezing rain and/or snow. Since the temperature of the atmosphere generally is five degrees fahrenheit colder for every thousand feet of elevation it would be extremely dangerous to allow ice, snow, or moisture covered aircraft to takeoff and rapidly climb to elevations in excess of twenty thousand feet. Not only would ice form on the outer surfaces of the aircraft but the operation of the movable portions of the wings and stablizers and the landing gear would be greatly endangered. It has become standard practice to spray down ice and snow covered aircraft with aqueous solutions of ethelene glycol before takeoff. At J.F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, millions of gallons of ethelene glycol are employed yearly to prepare aircraft for takeoff and no attempt is made to reclaim the waste chemical which has become an environmental problem.
It would be desirable to prevent further environmental damage to the streams, lakes and oceans by the dumping of waste chemicals such as ethelene glycol. Further it would be extremely desirable to provide a reclamation system which was capable of refining and/or reclaiming waste chemicals which not only is economically justifiable, but actually produced recycled usable waste chemicals at a lower cost than new chemicals.
It has always been possible to truck waste chemicals to a recycling plant and to pick up reprocessed chemicals. The problem has been that such plants are few in number and are usually a long distance from the users of the chemical. Further, the recycling plants which are in operation are geared to continuous production and require very large storage facilities. Usually such reclamation systems are not simple enough in basic operation to permit a simple change from one waste chemical to another.